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March 2006 • Volume 11 Number 3 |
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Executive Director's Letter Dear members and friends of the Alliance: "226 days left." That was part of the message delivered by Ron Martin, U.S. Department of Commerce, at the March 15th gathering of the Interagency Advisory Board (IAB), the federal agency committee helping government agencies help themselves in meeting the deadline for Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) implementation. Referring to the October 27 deadline to begin issuing PIV Part II-compliant identity cards, the number resonated throughout the room. There was some applause and also some nervous laughter as both government and industry gathered to discuss the progress being made to implement the U.S. federal government's smart card credentialing mandate. The directive, signed on August 27, 2004, requires "the development and agency implementation of a mandatory, government-wide standard for secure and reliable forms of identification for Federal employees and contractors." Since that announcement less than two years ago, there has been furious activity throughout the industry and with government policy makers, standards bodies, and federal agencies themselves to come to grips with this mandate and to put in place the specifications and plans for compliance. What we continue to observe is that the devil is in the details. The standards definition effort by NIST, called FIPS 201, has continued to move forward in a positive direction. The vendor community is starting to show the first signs of testing and integrating FIPS 201-compliant products in labs and with partners. In the next 200 or so days, the details to work out include both policy decisions and technology selection and implementation. The lines of responsibility clearly separate the government policy makers from its standards setters. What is left between those two forces are the industry suppliers, integrators and federal agency credential issuers who are trying to issue PIV-compliant credentials and to sort out the myriad of details to make it happen. The smart card industry is used to working under conditions of shifting requirements and tight deadlines. So are the developers and integrators of the physical security systems and related card production systems. What is becoming the choke point is something called the IDMS, or Identity Management System, which captures all of the personnel data and formats it so that the CMS, or Card Management System, can issue the credential and manage it after it has been issued. The IDMS and CMS systems feed into the physical access systems (PACS) that control what cardholders can do with their new government ID after it is issued. Knitting these systems together in an open architecture so that agencies can choose any IDMS, CMS, PACS, or card is where many challenges remain. One thing is certain - the next 226 days are going to be even more intense then ever as we begin closing in on the October deadline. Stay tuned to the Smart Card Alliance and particularly to our Physical Access Council as we discuss and try to solve the HSPD 12 challenges side-by-side with our government colleagues.
Before joining Visa, Manby served as a manager with the global consultancy Mitchell Madison Group. At MMG, she worked with clients to build market entry strategies for a range of new products. Manby received a master's degree in business administration from the Yale School of Management and a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. 1. What are Visa USA's main smart card initiatives? Visa USA's main smart card initiative is the deployment of Visa Contactless, a flexible and secure payment platform that raises the level of speed and convenience for both cardholders and merchants. Visa has been involved with proximity payments for several years, conducting successful trials around the world that informed the deployment of Visa Contactless in the United States last year. Among the benefits for cardholders and merchants is that Visa Contactless transactions are up to 25 percent faster than using cash. In addition, consumers are comfortable using contactless payments because they keep control of their card, and merchants benefit because it enables employees to focus on customer service and other operations. Visa Contactless is based on RF (radio frequency) technology and uses the ISO 14443 standard. As part of this initiative, Visa expanded the Visa Smart Breakthrough program last year to include a new contactless chip solution. The program makes cards, terminals and personalization solutions more cost-effective for financial institutions, merchants and consumers. Features of the new contactless card include a smaller than usual antenna that provides more flexibility for card embossing, design, and shape, allowing issuers to differentiate their products in the marketplace. In addition, the enhanced card and chip performance boosts card-terminal read capabilities, leading to a more consistent cardholder experience at the point of sale.
Top Identity Topics: Identity Theft--When You Don't Own Your Identity! An individual's identity is defined most simply by the set of characteristics that enable a person to be recognized or known. There are three ways of thinking about identity:
This article discusses one of the top identity topics - identity theft - and offers perspectives on how the problem can be addressed with policy, process, and technology solutions.
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This month Smart Card Talk spoke with Niki Manby, Vice President of Market and Technology Innovation, for Visa USA. Manby joined Visa USA in 2001 and is currently responsible for evaluating opportunities and devising strategies to open new markets for existing and new Visa products and technologies. Her responsibilities include market opportunity analysis, technology assessment, consumer research, and product concept design and testing. Manby is specifically engaged in supporting Visa's cash-to-card and check-to-card strategies, working to design ways to make payment cards more ubiquitous. 
Executive
Director's Letter
